Desrosiers named executive editor of GateHouse Ohio Media

Rich Desrosiers is the new executive editor of GateHouse Ohio Media, a job that brings him back to The Repository, where his career began 30 years ago.

Shane Hoover CantonRep.com staff writer @shooverREP

Rich Desrosiers is the new executive editor of GateHouse Ohio Media, a job that brings him back to The Repository, where his career began 30 years ago.

Desrosiers, 51, of Lake Township, comes from the Akron Beacon Journal, where he had been metro editor since 2008.

Desrosiers will lead all GateHouse Ohio publications, including The Repository, The Independent (Massillon) and Times-Reporter (New Philadelphia).

“We looked across the country for an executive editor and I think we’re fortunate to have found the best candidate in our own back yard,” said GateHouse Ohio Media President and Publisher Jim Porter. “I wanted someone who was very passionate about this community and is very passionate about journalism.”

Running the Repository newsroom will be Scott Brown, who takes over as the paper’s managing editor. Brown, 38, of Plain Township, has worked for The Repository since 2004.

“He’s one of those guys who keeps things going in the background and it just comes out well,” Porter said. “He is a leader who is able to balance the hands-on work in a newsroom with a fresh approach.”

Laura Kessel, who has been managing editor since February 2014, will move into a new role on the newsroom leadership team to be announced.

NEW LEADERSHIP

The executive editor post opened in February when Therese D. Hayt became executive director of the American Society of News Editors. She was the first woman to serve as top editor in The Repository’s 200-year history when she started in 2012.

Desrosiers said he wasn’t looking to leave the Beacon Journal, but being the top editor in Canton is a bucket-list job.

“For me, it’s the job I want to do, in the place I want to do it, and with a staff that I think is poised to do a lot of really good work,” Desrosiers said. “I want to be part of that team.”

Recent reporting projects, such as a special section in May on the Hall of Fame Village, show the staff has “a very high ceiling,” he said.

Desrosiers grew up in Lorain but has lived in Stark County since his senior year at the University of Akron.

He and his wife, Anne, a former St. Thomas Aquinas teacher and volleyball coach, have been married 29 years. They are parishioners at St. Paul Catholic Church in North Canton. Their children — Drew, 24; Maggie, 22; and John, 20 — are Hoover High School graduates.

The Repository hired Desrosiers part-time in the sports department after he graduated from Akron in 1985. That turned into a full-time reporting job, and Desrosiers later worked as a designer and night supervisor.

In 1994, he left for the Beacon Journal, where he was a designer, sports editor, Stark bureau manager and most recently supervised the metro and business reporters.

“I’ve done just about everything, except photography,” he said.

Journalists who have worked with Desrosiers at both papers describe him as even-keeled, with a good sense of humor; flexible; trustworthy; a consensus-builder who can be decisive.

In an email, former Beacon Journal reporter Phil Trexler, now a WKYC executive producer, wrote: “He’s easily the most-liked and most-respected editor at the ABJ.”

Beacon Journal copy editor Mark J. Price said Desrosiers has a good grasp on what is important to the community and how to make stories best for readers.

“It’s our loss and it’s your gain, definitely. We’re going to miss working with him,” said Price, who worked with Desrosiers at The Repository and Beacon Journal.

LOOKING AHEAD

Desrosiers will set priorities for the three newspapers. Brown will be the managing editor responsible for carrying them out at The Repository.

Brown previously served as managing editor from 2012 to 2014. He lives in Plain Township with his wife, Darla, and their three children, Alex, 13; Zach, 11; and Maya, 8.

“I’m real excited to work with (Desrosiers),” Brown said. “I think the rest of us in our newsroom are going to enjoy working with him. I think readers and people in the community are going to enjoy working with him.”

Desrosiers said readers can expect accuracy and fairness, as well as a newspaper that reflects the community and is an independent voice and a catalyst for improvement.

“I think readers will be happy with what they see,” he said. “They will be excited to pick up the paper in the morning.”